​ “On my arrival at this city [London], I found that the King had already gone to a place upwards of 60 miles distant, where he generally spends his time in hunting.”

Henry VIII

​“Mass over, the King came, entered the audience hall, and sent for us. As soon as he saw me from the very end of the hall, a very spacious and long one, where he was conversing apart with some of his Privy Councillors, he came forward and sat in the middle of it in an arm chair, which had been prepared for him, and under a small canopy.

“The King, at my approach, rose from his seat, advanced three or four paces to meet me, and bade me most graciously to come nearer. I did not enter at once into the matter of my commission, as I thought it better to thank him first for sending his secretary to me, and for the offers made in his name.

“I explained again in as few words as possible my reasons for desiring that the audience should be private instead of public and repeated almost the same words I had said to Doctor Guenich (Hennege). This I did on purpose, that he might listen with greater attention to what I had to say, as did happen.

“For having presented Your Majesty's letter he took it in his hand but did not attempt to open it at the time, believing it, no doubt, to be a mere credential.

“I then began to expound my commission without omitting any part of my instructions, adding from time to time some little remark of my own, which I considered fit for the purpose. The King, meanwhile, listened with much attention, with open mien and smiling countenance. My address at an end, the King began by welcoming me to his kingdom.”

​“Respecting the principal point of your commission (this he said in a low tone of voice, and as graciously as before), I must candidly tell you that I do not see what reason the Emperor has for refusing to send me the brief of dispensation for the marriage between the Queen and myself, when both of us conjointly have applied for it.

“One might say that great injury had been done to both parties by such refusal, for the Emperor must know that a Papal brief addressed to me and to the Queen, is our joint property, belongs exclusively to us, and ought to be in our hands, not in those of people whom it does not concern.

“In case of the Emperor claiming to have an interest in the affair, a faithful transcript might have been sufficient instead of retaining the original itself." The King then went on reproducing the very same arguments once made by his own ambassadors and those of the Queen in Your Majesty's presence, when they went to ask for the brief, though it must be said that he occasionally amplified and coloured them as much as he could, sometimes in Latin, at others in French, saying among other things:​"I cannot help thinking, seeing the Emperor's pertinacious refusal to send us the brief of dispensation, that it must be a forgery, made, I have no doubt, without the Emperor's knowledge, for I believe him to be incapable of such an act. I have caused all the register books at Rome to be searched, and in none of them is mention made of such a brief, whereas everyone knows that if such document really emanated from the Holy See there would still remain some record or trace of it.”